Daily Trends: Weekend Edition, Wk.4

It's Friday, but that doesn't mean we're not ready to help you moving forward. To that end, here's a matchup piece that covers both Saturday and Sunday for those of you looking for a little bit of assistance in setting your lineups for the weekend.

Note: This article is being written on Friday. Make sure you check the injury reports and lineups for the weekend before blindly setting your lineup based simply on this piece.

SATURDAY

DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day

Domonic Brown has hit .545 in 11 at-bats against Bronson Arroyo with four extra base hits. Teammate Marlon Byrd has been even more impressive hitting .370 with two homers in 27 at-bats. Oh, and Chase Utley, he's at .300 with two homers in 20 at-bats.

Billy Butler's face was last seen on a milk carton. Failing to hit his weight in the early going while being moved all over the batting order, he's 7-for-12 with two bombs versus Wei-Yin Chen. He's also hit .311 with a .912 OPS against lefties in his career. Eric Hosmer is also 5-for-11 with two homers and four RBIs in the matchup.

Miguel Cabrera treats Phil Hughes like a pinata at an eight year old's party with 13 hits in 25 at-bats. Not only is that a .560 average, but eight of those 14 hits are for extra bases including five bombs. Toss in 11 RBIs an a 1.873 OPS and Cabrera is the play of the day. Another who hits Hughes well is Victor Martinez who is at .368 through 19 at-bats.

David DeJesus was in a terrible slump before ripping off four hits and five RBIs in a 3-game stretch. He faces John Danks whom he's hitting .360 against (25 ABs).

Mark Ellis had two hits in his first 16 at-bats this season. However, he has hit .275 against lefties in his career and he's 8-for-13 with a homer against Francisco Liriano.

Andre Ethier is really struggling, but in his career he's hit .308/.386/.515 against righties. That's elite level stuff. He's also 8-for-14 against righty Juan Nicasio. Hanley Ramirez is 6-for-11 in the matchup while Matt Kemp is at .308 with two homers in 13 at-bats.

Dustin Pedroia meet Mr. Base Hit. Pedroia has wrapped out 12 hits in 23 at-bats against Brandon Morrow and that includes two bombs and six RBIs. Hard to do much better than that. Grady Sizemore is close in a smaller sample size as he's 6-for-12 with a homer and five RBIs in the matchup.

David Wright has no problem with Kevin Slowey. That's what you say about a guy who has six hits in 12 at-bats (including a bomb).

DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day

Starlin Castro is hitting .286 against righties but he's only hitting .156 on the road this season. Marco Estrada may have the upper hand. Estrada certainly has the upper hand against Anthony Rizzo who has only one hit in 15 at-bats against the righty.

Chris Davis cannot hit Jeremy Guthrie. Pretty odd when you think about it. Still, a 1-for-16 spot is pretty indicative that Guthrie has the advantage in the matchup, even if Davis is finally starting to hit.

It's not often you look up an All-Star and see a 1-for-21 spot. That's what you find when you look at Clay Buchholz versus Edwin Encarnacion. That's only slightly worse than the 2-for-19 spot that Brett Lawrie has.

Mitch Moreland isn't the only one in the 'I can't hit Felix Hernandez' club. He's just a great example of it. Moreland has hit .188 with nine Ks in 32 at-bats. Alex Rios has hit .229 with 13 Ks in his 35 at-bats, so that duo isn't likely to provide much offense Saturday.

Jhonny Peralta is as messy as a drunk who's pulled down 12 beers at the corner bar on a Tuesday night. He simply can't hit anything. He owns a .333 average against Francisco Liriano, but his current woes, and the fact that he's struck out in a third of his 39 at-bats in the matchup give the edge to Liriano. Allen Craig isn't likely to have success with as he's sporting an 0-for-11 spot with six Ks.

Martin Prado just doesn't see the ball well against Cliff Lee (he's certainly not the only one to be afflicted with that disease). Prado has hit just .207 with nine strikeouts in 29 at-bats against Lee.

Ben Zobrist is hitting well, but John Danks is his Kryptonite. Zobrist has two hits in 16 at-bats and he's also whiffed seven times.

MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target

Andrew Cashner has a 2.10 ERA and 1.05 WHIP on the year, and he's gone at least six innings in each of his outings. He faces the Nationals on the road, and he's struggled a bit on the road with a 4.50 ERA and 1.42 WHIP in two starts. He also allowed six runs in his last outing against the Nationals, and that only covered two innings. Luckily for him the Nats are only hitting .237 with a .691 OPS against righties this season.

Mike Leake has a 2.33 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in four career starts versus the Braves. He's also posted a 3.32 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in three road starts this season and he's gone at least 6.2 in each of those outings.

Cliff Lee has walked one batters over his last four outings while striking out 37. The D'backs are beat up and struggling. They are unlikely to have success in the matchup. Lee is 4-1 with a 2.93 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in his career against the Diamondbacks.

Travis Wood can't pitch any better than he is right now. He's somehow punched out 28 batters in 25 innings while walking only four men. Impossible to trust in a season long league, how do you avoid Wood in this start when you also consider that he's got a 3.33 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 40 Ks in 46 innings versus the Brew Crew in his career?

MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid

Bronson Arroyo was injured all spring, and he's clearly not right. Through four starts he owns a 9.50 ERA, 2.00 WHIP and has eight strikeouts in 18 innings. He's also sporting a 5.35 ERA and has given up 14 homers in 13 games against the Phillies.

Clay Buchholz has flashed diminished velocity, has a 7.71 ERA and 1.93 WHIP on the young season. He simply cannot be trusted. Too bad too since he's historically dominated the Blue Jays (2.44 ERA, 1.15 WHIP over 114.1 innings).

Brandon Morrow has thrown only 8.2 innings in his last two starts and his four outings this season have resulted in 19.2 innings of 5.03 ERA ball. Not good. He's also long been a punching bag for the Red Sox who have a 7.99 ERA and 1.80 WHIP off the righty over 50.2 innings.

Dan Straily is set to face the anemic Astros, but he's just not looked sharp his last two outings. Straily has lasted only 8.2 innings while allowing 13 hits and nine runs. He's also allowed five homers in four games. Not a horrific play, but not one I have confidence in either.

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SUNDAY

Nick Markakis does his thing against James Shields. In 75 plate appearances he's batting .303 with a .387 OBP. He's gone deep twice.

Matt Kemp loves him some of that sauce that Jorge De La Rosa throws up there. Kemp his a .423-3-8 line in 26 at-bats. He ain't the only Dodgers who enjoys success in the matchup. Check it: Hanley Ramirez (.381 with a homer in 21 ABs) and Adrian Gonzalez (.375-3-9 in 32 ABs) do their fair share of mashing too.

Howie Kendrick has a tough matchup with Masahiro Tanaka. Still, Howie is the ole' professional hitter and he's hit .400 on the road this season and he's batting .339 against righties.

Paul Konerko has to be active for the White Sox. Not only does he have two homers and seven RBIs against David Price but he's also racked up 10 hits in 20 at-bats.

Joe Mauer will look to, once again, get the upper hand against Justin Verlander. The smooth swinger has managed to hit three homers versus Verlander (say that fast 5-straight times) while batting .371 with a 1.054 OPS over 74 plate appearances. Wow is right.

Andrew McCutchen seemingly hits everyone, even the really good arms. Look no further than his matchup with Adam Wainwright. McC has hit .419 with a homer and seven total extra base hits leading to a 1.183 OPS. Russell Martin also mashes against Wainwright to the tune of a .409/.519/.500 line over 26 plate appearances.

Anthony Rizzo is batting .385 with two homers in 13 at-bats against Wily Peralta. Oddly, he's actually hitting better against lefties (.379) than righties (.278) right now, but history says to play Rizzo against righties. Starlin Castro is 7-for-16 against Peralta as well (.438).

Giancarlo Stanton faces righty Dillon Gee Sunday. Currently no batter in baseball has more than the 24 RBIs that Stanton has posted against righties. He's also gone deep five times while hitting .294 agsaint them as well.

Jose Bautista is off to an impressive start this season. Look for Jon Lester to provide a speedbump. Bautista has hit four homers off Lester but he's also batting .204 with a mere .297 OBP in the matchup (62 plate appearances). Unfortunately for the Blue Jays that's a better set of numbers than the .194/.275 marks that Edwin Encarnacion has posted in 41 plate appearances.

Six of Brandon Belt's seven homers are on the road. His batting average also dips to .280 against righties – Danny Salazar – and his average at home is only .273.

Starling Marte is hitting only .247 with a massive total of 30 punchouts in 89 at-bats against right-handed pitching. Good luck against Adam Wainwright.

Yadier Molina has only three hits in 23 at-bats against Edinson Volquez, and nearly all of that work was against the “bad” Volquez. Doesn't figure to improve now that Edinson has improved, does it?

Trevor Plouffe has hit .191 in 152 career at-bats versus the Tigers. Part of the reason for that tiny number is that he's hit only .167 over 24 at-bats versus Justin Verlander.

Alexei Ramirez has seen his batting average dip about .065 points over the last 10 days. He's also facing David Price, a man who has held him to four hits in 23 at-bats (.174 with no RBIs). Gordon Beckham is similarly awful with a .136 average in 22 at-bats.

Anthony Rendon has what looks like a decent matchup on paper against Ian Kennedy. Unfortunately Rendon has hit only .240 against right-handed pitching this season.

A.J. Burnett has looked pretty solid his last two starts allowing just 12 base runners and two runs over 13.2 innings. He's worth a look against a beat up D'Backs squad.

Johnny Cueto doesn't have an easy matchup with the Braves, but how do you sit him? He's made five starts, all of which have lasted at least seven innings with two or fewer earned runs allowed. He's also posted back-to-back complete game victories allowing one run while striking out 16. Gotsta start him.

Jon Lester dominates Bautista and Encarnacion. Hell, he dominates all the Blue Jays. The Jays current roster has 281 at-bats against Lester and are hitting .192 with seven homers, 23 RBIs an a .579 OPS. Lock and load with Lester.

James Shields is damn good, even if you and everyone else doesn't seem to recognize that fact. Through five starts he's the owner of a 1.91 ERA and 1.00 WHIP while he's punched out 35 batters in 33 innings. Current Orioles batters are also hitting a mere .265 against him and he's allowed seven homers 200 at-bats. A solid start.

Jorge De La Rosa has a 6.38 ERA and 1.46 WHIP. He's also facing a Dodgers team that has hit .303/.368/.524 against him in 145 at-bats.

R.A. Dickey has a 5.90 ERA, 1.62 WHIP and 1.33 K/BB ratio. He's facing a Boston club that has pushed him into a 5.32 ERA and 1.47 WIHP over 45.2 innings. He cannot be trusted.

Kyle Gibson faces Justin Verlander. That means he also daces the Tigers potent offense. He was also bombed in his last outing for seven runs while recording only three outs. Through 221. innings he's the owner of a 1.48 WHIP and a sickly 1.18 K/BB ratio and 5.24 K/9 mark. You can do better. By a lot.

Tommy Milone is on the road. Strike one. He's posted just two strikeouts while walking six batters his last two outings. Strike two. Even though the opponent is the Astros, there's just no discernible upside for Milone right now. What, six innings of three run ball with four strikeouts going to excite you? Strike three.

Who's worse, Danny Salazar or Ryan Vogelsong in the Sunday matchup between the Indians and Giants? Let's just say that neither man, with an ERA over 7.70, should be started. Fair enough?

Make sure you tune in to the Fantasy Alarm's Daily Game Show at 6 PM EDT, Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius210, XM87) as Jeff Mans and Ted Schuster will help you to set your daily lineups.